It’s another early start today, as a lengthy two-and-a-half-hour morning stint to make up some of the time lost on the first day. The athletes are getting ready to begin play.
Pink Tributes and Batting Might
Events are handled superbly in Australia. The opening day of this final Test featured a moving homage to the sufferers and heroes of the Bondi tragedy, and on the third day the Sydney Cricket Ground was became a ocean of pink to once again generate donations for the McGrath Foundation.
Between the wickets, however, Australian charity was in far scarcer quantity. Across three sessions their batmen wore down the English attack, answering any questions about their motivation since securing the Ashes and raising a few more regarding their defeated rivals.
Looking drained after the toil, Ben Stokes and his team walked off at stumps seeing pink elephants. Steve Smith’s 37th Test century, 129 not out from 205 balls, had followed the second half of Travis Head’s sizzling 163 from 166, and with it Australia had achieved 518 for seven from 124 overs. The lead sat at 134 runs overnight and looked an daunting one.
A Cricketing Icon's Opinion
The famed Neil Harvey, 97, offered his perspective in a engaging interview.
I've been unimpressed with England. I think the way they handle the batting side of things, they get too careless, nobody seems to want to construct a knock, like a Cowdrey or a Boycott.
It might work against lesser sides but when you get a top-tier team like Australia it's a completely different proposition. I used to score runs relatively quickly, and everyone gets a lot of satisfaction out of it, but when you try to play this Bazball style it lessens the probability of winning an important Test. I'd like to see them show more restraint.
A Harsh Welcome
Almost an hour into a gloomy morning at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Matt Potts entered the England attack from the Randwick End, and immediately began trying out his variations.
His first ball was sprayed down the leg side and smashed through cover by Travis Head. His second ball was both short outside off stump and hacked over gully by Travis Head. His third ball was on a good length and driven past midwicket by Travis Head. His fourth ball was negotiated with a show of furrowed caution, to jeering shouts from a crowd that had begun to get involved. A grueling introduction, Pottsy. And yes, it's always like this around here.
Joining the Pantheon
There was a time, while Steve Smith was at the height of his batting mastery, when “best since Bradman” was used with certainty. The thing about that line is that even when the recipient has dominated for years, it gets granted too quickly, given the point of comparison is a career spanning twenty years. Lots of players reach the top for a time, no other has maintained that level.
The blend of those phases, though, elevated him to a rare position on the third day. In the statistics of the game there are landmarks, then there are mountaintops. For a long time in Smith's Ashes-heavy career there have been two peaks looming ever nearer in the mist. Donald Bradman's 5,028 runs against England is one that even Smith will never climb. Jack Hobbs's 3,636 runs against Australia is the one he surpassed on Tuesday.
Preamble: An Anticlimactic Finale
The current Ashes battle, possibly the most anticlimactic series in the 144 years since Fred Spofforth made history at The Oval, is limping towards a suitable finale. Australia are poised to defeat comprehensively England at Sydney and win the series 4-1, a scoreline not even the most one-eyed Pom could argue with.
It's been a triumph of maturity, discipline, skill, ability and Travis Head. His daring 123 at Perth exposed English frailties that have yet to recover; four Tests later he is merrily adding to their woes. Head's surprisingly ruthless 163 helped Australia to 518 for 7 at the end of day three, a lead of 134. Steve Smith will resume on 129 after making a century that looked inevitable even before he faced his first ball.
Australia, despite a number of faultlines in their team, have won the series with an comfort that is hard to understand. Maybe that's an Anglocentric view. It's not Australia's fault that England were not competitive – even if, on some level, they probably desired a greater challenge.
The concluding chapter will be administered either this evening or tomorrow. There's a chance of a total collapse when England bat, just as there was in the last knock of 2013-14 and 2021-22. Their bodies are exhausted, their confidence shattered, their spirit dented. It's nearly time for everyone to go home.
